Marvel's The Avengers

I went to see it last night, after a fun filled day of punching paper at this class.Was an awesome way to recap an already pretty cool day. Couldn't stay for the post credit clip, though, had to drive home (1 hour drive). Will catch it later, if/when it makes it to youtube or someplace like that...

I don't know how they do weekend estimates and I'm sure there was a bit of fudging to get it north of 200, but $200.3 million is the number that's popping up for weekend take.

That's just nuts, but at the same time the movie really was that good.

It helps when there haven't been any good movies for a few weeks and there aren't any promising ones for next week. Though I am looking forward to Bobcat Goldthwait's God Bless America, but I doubt that is going to have high mainstream appeal (R rating and dead babbies).

You're right, $641-million in one week, $200-million alone estimated from the US opening weekend. I wonder how the studios will write this one off as a business loss.

Edit: There was a guy behind me last night who found one visual element of the movie unrealistic: the VTOL variant of the F-35. Out of everything else in the film, the plane that actually exists is what he scoffed at.

That was a JSF fighter, not a F-35. They look very similar but the F-35 has dual exhaust and doesn't have the VTOL capabilities that the JSF was designed with.

Still kick ass!

Techincally the F-35 was/is the JSF.

All of the F-35's are single "exhaust" techincally however the F-35B has a F135 engine which features vectoring thrust (limited) with a lift fan.

What did impress me about the F-35B in the film is that it went into hover properly, in the right order, and that helmet worn by the pilot and the ejection seat he was sitting on were both accurate.

He gave it 3 out of 4 stars and his "review" (which wasn't really a review) was pretty pedestrian.

It was a fair review. The movie delivered what was expected and not much beyond. He didn't say that was bad. It would have been better if he hadn't pretended as if he knew anything about the Marvel universe at the start, though.

Emkorial wrote:

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and Iron Man's disappearing/reappearing chest glow was distracting.

Really? If that distracted you, I think you were watching a different movie.

He gave it 3 out of 4 stars and his "review" (which wasn't really a review) was pretty pedestrian.

It was a fair review. The movie delivered what was expected and not much beyond. He didn't say that was bad. It would have been better if he hadn't pretended as if he knew anything about the Marvel universe at the start, though.

There were a couple of jabs at comic book fans that weren't really necessary. I also thought there was a disconnect between his star rating and the stuff he chose to talk about in his review. If I knew nothing about the film and was going only by his review, I would have assumed this film was on par with, say, Thor.

"I'm not a team player! I'm angry and uncontrollable and I smash EVERYTHING. Except for when I don't do that and do exactly what you guys need me to do..."

They could have played it out better. It seems natural the Hulk would go for the biggest, most obvious targets to smash, so having him play tag team at random points in the battle felt out of character. There were lots and lots of aliens he could destroy as the rest of the team tightly coordinated and stayed out of his way. If they could have cleverly led him around like a bull and matador at times that would have been ideal. Having him calmly stand with the Avengers in the end was not for me.

I get that they tried to lead the audience to a controlled Hulk persona with Tony Stark's comments and with the Hulk supposedly "choosing" to land away from people when he fell, but it just was such a total 180 from the way Hulk behaved toward the other Avengers aboard the Helicarrier that I personally found it jarring.

I guess in the end the only person I really like controlling the Hulk (including Bruce) is Betty Ross. And I don't like my Betty Ross being She-Hulk. Just personal preference.

In other news, I was thinking about you and your nephew while watching the movie this past weekend. I was bored to tears during some of the "slow talky parts," so I was concerned for your nephew, and by concerned, I mean "eager to read about him implementing our 'Hulk Smash Theater!' plan as discussed previously."

"I'm not a team player! I'm angry and uncontrollable and I smash EVERYTHING. Except for when I don't do that and do exactly what you guys need me to do..."

They could have played it out better. It seems natural the Hulk would go for the biggest, most obvious targets to smash, so having him play tag team at random points in the battle felt out of character. There were lots and lots of aliens he could destroy as the rest of the team tightly coordinated and stayed out of his way. If they could have cleverly led him around like a bull and matador at times that would have been ideal. Having him calmly stand with the Avengers in the end was not for me.

I get that they tried to lead the audience to a controlled Hulk persona with Tony Stark's comments and with the Hulk supposedly "choosing" to land away from people when he fell, but it just was a total 360 from the way Hulk behaved toward the other Avengers aboard the Helicarrier that I personally found it jarring.

I guess in the end the only person I really like controlling the Hulk (including Bruce) is Betty Ross. And I don't like my Betty Ross being She-Hulk. Just personal preference.

Ah, I can understand that then. Overall I was happy with the direction they took the Hulk in (as opposed to the previous incarnations), but I can see how the continuity could be an issue in this case.

In other news, I was thinking about you and your nephew while watching the movie this past weekend. I was bored to tears during some of the "slow talky parts," so I was concerned for your nephew, and by concerned, I mean "eager to read about him implementing our 'Hulk Smash Theater!' plan as discussed previously."

Coincidentally, there were some parts (like the round table gathering, etc), where he was quite bored. At that point we started playing a little game called "Hulk Smash Popcorn!". I'd hold a couple of popcorn bits in my hand and he'd smash them with his fist. Then I'd facepalm the crushed up bits against his forehead.

"I'm not a team player! I'm angry and uncontrollable and I smash EVERYTHING. Except for when I don't do that and do exactly what you guys need me to do..."

They could have played it out better. It seems natural the Hulk would go for the biggest, most obvious targets to smash, so having him play tag team at random points in the battle felt out of character. There were lots and lots of aliens he could destroy as the rest of the team tightly coordinated and stayed out of his way. If they could have cleverly led him around like a bull and matador at times that would have been ideal. Having him calmly stand with the Avengers in the end was not for me.

I get that they tried to lead the audience to a controlled Hulk persona with Tony Stark's comments and with the Hulk supposedly "choosing" to land away from people when he fell, but it just was such a total 180 from the way Hulk behaved toward the other Avengers aboard the Helicarrier that I personally found it jarring.

I guess in the end the only person I really like controlling the Hulk (including Bruce) is Betty Ross. And I don't like my Betty Ross being She-Hulk. Just personal preference.

It was poorly explained in the movie and required some background knowledge of the Hulk in the comics, many times throughout the characters career he could willfully become the Hulk and maintain control but stress/pain would turn him into homocidal maniac Hulk. I'm pretty sure at one point he became different colors based on which Hulk "mode" he was in, green or gray, although it's been a long time since I read any Hulk comics.

The "I'm always angry" line was IMHO thier attempt at explaining that, but they could have given it a bit more screen time for a little exposition to explain it.

Based on average admission prices the years they were released, "The Dark Knight" and "Spider-Man 3" had led with about 22 million tickets sold each over opening weekend. Today's average prices put "The Avengers" tally at around 25.6 million tickets sold.

But I question that math since the average ticket price would probably not be the accurate 3D price.

What Black Widow's superpower actually is. I hadn't heard of her before as I don't follow comic book characters far outside film, but she baited the audience with that "I have a very unique skillset" line, only to find out that she's only a good fighter. I was expecting something a bit more 'superpowery'. Is there any more to her?

I was expecting a lot, and it still completely blew me away. This was the movie I was hoping they would make when they announced they were going to do multiple-movie continuity, but I didn't really think they would be able to pull it off. It's pretty interesting reading all of the potential concerns the beginning of this thread, and seeing how every single one of them was handled in the movie.

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Yeah, even digital projectors have a higher than HD resolution.

Not by much, unless it's a 4k projector, which are still relatively rare. The fact that it's a projector (that's almost never focused or calibrated perfectly) also means that if you have a decent home setup a Blu-ray is going to give you better quality.

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I knew Joss would make it fun but was anyone honstly expecting it to be that funny?

*raises hand* That's one of his things. This movie was pretty much tailor made for him to knock out of the park. He didn't need to do any backstory (pacing while getting everything up to speed is his biggest flaw), he's a movie and comic book writer/director, and he knows exactly how to make you care about characters. He managed to get all the little comic details right that everyone else has always missed or got wrong, while never losing focus of the characters. He's never had the budget to properly realize his "big" action scenes before, which probably is what made these work so well, he didn't take them for granted. As much as a I love his previous stuff, it all seems like a lead up to this movie. Maybe those FOX execs can be forgiven some for fucking him over and over now

What Black Widow's superpower actually is. I hadn't heard of her before as I don't follow comic book characters far outside film, but she baited the audience with that "I have a very unique skillset" line, only to find out that she's only a good fighter. I was expecting something a bit more 'superpowery'. Is there any more to her?

What Black Widow's superpower actually is. I hadn't heard of her before as I don't follow comic book characters far outside film, but she baited the audience with that "I have a very unique skillset" line, only to find out that she's only a good fighter. I was expecting something a bit more 'superpowery'. Is there any more to her?

Really? How many people do you know who can do what she does? I'd call her skillset fairly unique.